


The New Hive Motto

by elanor_pam



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Gen, Implied Relationships, Minor Dave Strider/Karkat Vantas, Minor Terezi Pyrope/Karkat Vantas, implied polyamory, minor dave strider/karkat vantas/terezi pyrope
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-16
Updated: 2016-04-16
Packaged: 2018-06-02 11:54:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6565117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elanor_pam/pseuds/elanor_pam
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the gutted remains of the Furthest Ring, they gather in wait. There are things to be done. There are friends to be found. There are asses to be kicked.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The New Hive Motto

Somewhere in the middle of the vast cobwebbed shards of the nothing between realities, two girls watched and waited, curled into each other like abandoned urchins. 

Strictly speaking, Terezi and Vriska spared only the most remote interest to the leftover chaos of battle itself. The spectacle was over. Other matters held greater importance at the moment. 

Sidling up, picking their way through possibly imaginary debris, others approached with the uncertain gait of those unsure if they had a right to be. Eridan was the first, and certainly the sidliest. One could say he had reasons to feel sidly. Tavros not so much, but he too was awkward, as if it were contagious. It came up that they'd been waved ahead. Nepeta and Feferi came next with Sollux floating in tow. Aradia was busy rounding up the crew, they said. 

Terezi nodded gravely. If Vriska felt a pump on the wrist she clutched, she made no sign of it.

Kanaya showed up next. Terezi somehow knew which Kanaya she was at a glance. Eridan contrived to sidle into invisibility without moving from his spot; the height difference between them might or might not have been the cause. Her eyelids flickered for a second, as if her soft blank eyes had glanced down his body, and then she turned to speak to someone else. It was a regal movement. Eridan felt well dismissed, and not inclined to argue.

The group proceeded to compare notes, memories; everything seemed to check. They were all from the same timeline.

Next came Equius, wearing triangular shades for some reason. Just the shades, he mournfully told Nepeta. It could only speak in text. But if it had something to say, he would be sure to relay.

He missed being someone else, but perhaps, he said looking at his moirail, it was time to get a handle on being himself. (The shades disagreed.)

Only one more to go, was the thought thrumming in their collective heads. But instead two humans came up, awkward, hornless and black haired; one wore brown, the other yellow without pants. There were some timid greetings, tentative stabs at conversation. They were connected to the other humans, but otherwise out of the loop. 

The next two humans, one in black and the other in red, were received with greater cheer. They were known. Dave hugged Terezi tight, muttered at her ear; she laughed suddenly. Jade followed suit, more subdued. She, Vriska and Terezi spoke in mutters. Dave seemed fairly aware of their impending business and was soon monologuing on the matter, saying both too much and nothing at all. Everyone nodded and pretended to follow his meandering spiel.

They were all well tense and thrumming with expectation. 

When Aradia finally joined them, though, she was followed by a soft-cheeked, young human in blue and an equally young feathered sprite; behind them, a girl in dark colors seemed to melt against the broken darkness, incongruously hesitant.

They are not of our Timeline, Aradia announced by means of introduction. The price others chose to pay. Ours now.

The group scrambled to make them feel welcome. Calm as he was John looked simply too young to be allowed, for the ones who knew him older; and Davesprite was fierce and scared, shifting from feather demon to gawky boy and halfway between. Roxy latched onto her friends with many tears. Something about replacements was coming out of her mouth. She seemed to be hoping it wouldn't be an issue in their eyes.

The similarities and differences among their points of origin were discussed at length, while Aradia stood back and smiled her knowing smile. Every now and then one would look at her questioningly, Kanaya or Dave or Terezi, and she would grin wider for a fraction of a second before gazing elsewhere.

"It sure looks like reality's crib is completely fucked up now," Dave wondered, strolling by like he'd approached her on accident.

"Yeah," she answered vaguely, gaze sweeping past the jagged edges of the yawning crater in the center of all things. Her face scrunched up in a displeased moue. "It's going to be such a _bitch_ to clean up."

"Where's Karkat?" he asked, following her gaze and putting on an intense air of not caring either way.

"Busy," she said simply. 

"For how long?"

"Does it matter?" she asked with amusement. "He'll arrive when he does. This is still the Furthest Ring."

He nodded slow and thoughtfully, as if savoring the answer, and ambled back to the group. Younger John entertained the younger trolls— younger in body only as the dead tended to be— while the other humans, Vriska, Kanaya and Terezi stood in a smaller huddle. Terezi craned her neck over the group, stared at Dave's approaching form. Her face was relaxed in a very studied and deliberate manner, and remained so with little visible strain at the sight of Dave's single-shouldered shrug.

The first one to see him approach was actually Tavros, who wasn't even searching.

He looked strange in the distance, a little lopsided perhaps. His gait wasn't quite normal. Perhaps he was still replaying the memory of his death; there seemed to be some more orange than his horns accounted for, and red flashed by his legs. The glowing cracks at their feet and surrounding everything both marked the distance and confused it— at times he seemed closer, at times he seemed farther, and energetic waving and hooting didn't seem to improve his speed.

Eventually, he was close enough for them to make out the troll he was dragging by a horn.

Slightly taller than he was, stumbling back on the heels of red boots, putting up only token resistance. He dragged and the minutes dragged until he was close enough to shove Aranea at the human huddle, and even though the shove was half-hearted at best, she contrived to trip and fall on her ass with a pitiful cry, looking very offended. 

The humans stepped back with disgust in their faces, but for Roxy who stared cluelessly. Kanaya raised a disapproving eyebrow at Karkat, like one might at a barkbeast who spills their kibble. Vriska turned her face as if Aranea were a gangrenous wound. 

Terezi looked down at Aranea. Aranea straightened her back and took a deep breath, eyelids fluttering closed, wounded dignity in three acts.

"Well, this could be worse," Terezi's voice wobbled slightly as she spoke.

"She knows stuff!" Karkat waved his hand Aranea-wards. "I'm sick of groping in the dark and stubbing my toes and losing my friends and dying like a smoke-barfing rocket chump. Time to do our schoolfeed drills and she's our cheat sheet for this session."

"Knowing _is_ half the battle," Dave intoned with great solemnity.

"I'm not _arguing_ ," Terezi shook her head, palmed her face. Looked back at Karkat. "First things first. I'm sorry."

"Well, _I'm_ not," Karkat crossed his arms stubbornly, then froze and bit back a cringe as his own words hit his ears.

Terezi noticed, and grinned. "Sorry for what?"

"For dying," Karkat mumbled Aranea-wards.

"Well, you should be," she chided. "You really _did_ die like a rocket chump!"

"I can't believe this," Karkat threw his hands up, struggling against a smile. "I can't believe I crossed the mind-bendingly non-geometric corners of the Furthest Ring, toiled for literally uncountable sweeps on the timeless lukewarm nook of the beyond, and made my way back doubled under the weight of the infinite oinkbeast stripes I harvested for your sake, to receive this kind of piss-poor welcome! But enough," he sobered up in one go, raising a quelling hand. "We have places to go and things to do, and even though time doesn't matter here, it's still of the essence."

"We're still missing people," said Jake, hurriedly.

"So are we," Karkat said, gravely. 

As one, the alternian trolls traded looks among themselves. Tavros, Nepeta, Eridan, Feferi, Sollux. Vriska, Kanaya, Equius, Terezi, Aradia. The last one still smiled. Karkat stood tense as a live wire. You could stir the awkwardness with a spoon.

Nobody argued. "Good," said Karkat anyway, and extended a hand to Aradia. "You said you 'nabbed' it."

"I did and I have it," she intoned, apparently delighted at the spontaneous rhyme, and pulled something out of her pocket.

The ring shone very yellow and round in Karkat's hand. Aranea perked up enough to poke someone's nethers with a horn. 

"Down, you," Jane deposited the butt of her fork on Aranea's lap.

Karkat considered the ring. Slowly, he pushed it onto a finger. His ghostly eyes shimmered for a second, and faded back into living grey on yellow, shining with inner fire.

He slid it out of his finger. His eyes remained alive. Another moment of consideration. 

His gaze swept the group. The silence was solemn. His eyes stopped on someone, and he stepped forward, held one of Terezi's hands. His fingers were clumsy as he slid the ring on her pointer, as if overtaken by sudden nervousness.

Her eyes shimmered, and then she grabbed and dipped him for a kiss.

There was noise and clapping, intensified as Karkat kicked for air. When she put him back on his feet, her alive eyes were narrowed in a fierce, sharp grin, as if she had just enacted a long-coming revenge. But Karkat clutched the returned ring with a fist, and gasped for air only once.

"Team Adorabloodthirsty is back in action!" He shouted, hoarse and high. "The new hive motto is _nobody left behind!_ Now make a line and look sharp. I'm human matrimonying the _shit_ out of you lot."

" _All_ of us?" Jake asked.

" _All_ of you," he confirmed.

"Well _damn_ ," Dave said, admiringly. "Do we get to snog you too?"

Karkat's grin widened. "Maybe if you're lucky."

Dave nodded slowly and impressed, pale eyebrows raised above the rim of his glasses, and stepped ahead of the line. Somewhere behind him, Vriska let escape a sudden peal of laughter.


End file.
